Pointless Doomsday Device: Difference between revisions

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'''Usefulness''': None, by definition, but [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|highly]] [[For the Evulz|amusing]].|'''[[Dwarf Fortress]] [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Stupid_dwarf_trick Wiki]'''}}

[[The Time of Myths]] was a dangerous age to live in, with [[Eldritch Abomination~~|Eldritch Abominations~~]] on the loose, [[God of Evil|evil gods]] eating souls and whatnot. So it's not surprising that after becoming [[Sufficiently Advanced]], the [[Precursors]] made superweapons to defend themselves and make the galaxy or planet a safer place for their descendants. [[Benevolent Precursors|Conscientious precursors]] will dismantle or at least disable these weapons while [[Fling a Light Into the Future|preserving them for later use]] ~~-- usually~~ by scattering the component [[MacGuffin|Mac Guffins]] across the cosmos or placing some kind of condition for activation (say [[Virgin Power]], or innocence).

[[The Time of Myths]] was a dangerous age to live in, with [[Eldritch Abomination]]s on the loose, [[God of Evil|evil gods]] eating souls and whatnot. So it's not surprising that after becoming [[Sufficiently Advanced]], the [[Precursors]] made superweapons to defend themselves and make the galaxy or planet a safer place for their descendants. [[Benevolent Precursors|Conscientious precursors]] will dismantle or at least disable these weapons while [[Fling a Light Into the Future|preserving them for later use]]—usually by scattering the component [[MacGuffin|Mac Guffins]] across the cosmos or placing some kind of condition for activation (say [[Virgin Power]], or innocence).

Of course, most precursors tend to be either [[Neglectful Precursors|neglectful]] or outright [[Abusive Precursors|abusive]]. What this means is that they will make these superweapons for no particular reason other than [[For Science!|that they can]]. And even [[Benevolent Precursors]] might have rogue elements or simply have their superweapons [[Never Found the Body|seemingly destroyed]] and thought lost amid the casualties but in fact thrown through time. The weapon itself may have had legitimate use once upon a time, but after making the planet destroying espresso machine to defeat Insomnus the Snorer of Worlds, they will [[Lost Technology|completely forget about ever having made it]] and leave it in an easily accessible location. The device will (of course) be [[Ragnarok Proofing|immune to the ravages of time]] and ready to use minutes after being found. Worse, the precursors may not have even ''labeled the thing!'' So for all intents and purposes it seems like a normal espresso machine... which will destroy whatever planet it's on after one use. Of course, every villain or misguided soul in the setting will do whatever it takes to possess and activate the device, sometimes without even realizing (or underestimating) the danger it poses.

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** the Dakara Superweapon: capable of selectively disintegrating throughout the entire galaxy a particular species of life or all life in general, depending on how you set its incomprehensible but easily-used controls. Originally built to stop a plague.

** the San Graal: capable of destroying all Ascended beings in a galaxy - granted, this one was actually intended to be a weapon, and deliberately hidden behind puzzles.

*** Actually, it was instructions to MAKE the San Graal, and the good guys were given some assistance to find it, so this may be more of a conscientous precursor than [[Pointless Doomsday Device]].

*** Actually, it was instructions to MAKE the San Graal, and the good guys were given some assistance to find it, so this may be more of a conscientous precursor than Pointless Doomsday Device.

** the Asuran Replicators: a form of machine life built as a weapon to destroy the Wraith but then abandoned to its own devices when it proved to be a "failure" in some undefined way. The Ancients at least did try to destroy it, but of course didn't do a particularly thorough job.

*** Actually they did do a pretty thorough job, unfortunately out of the uncountable trillions of nanobots that make the Asuran Replicators they missed a couple, which was all that was needed to rebuild themselves.

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* The Hypernova Bomb created by Hactar, and "given" to the Elders of Krikkit, in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]''.

** Hactar was original designed and built by the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax]] and tasked with creating them an ''Ultimate Weapon''. On asking what they meant, it was instructed to "read a bloody dictionary". Whilst indeed pointless (it would blow up the entire Universe, leaving no victors but indeed making it the last weapon ever) it was a nice example of how the customer may be stupid but they are never wrong.

* In the third ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book, the Fourth Empire's plans for an extremely-advanced gravitronic bomb capable of destroying a ''sun''~~--all~~ on its ~~own--are~~ discovered. By this time, {{spoiler|the Fifth Empire is already well on its way to restoring its military might to the Achuultani-raping levels of the Fourth (with centuries to spare)}}, so there's really nothing else to do with the plans besides let them fall into the hands of a highly-organized, widespread group of religious terrorists bent on toppling the government for allying with the ''minions of the [[Anti Christ]]!''

* In the third ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book, the Fourth Empire's plans for an extremely-advanced gravitronic bomb capable of destroying a ''sun''—all on its own—are discovered. By this time, {{spoiler|the Fifth Empire is already well on its way to restoring its military might to the Achuultani-raping levels of the Fourth (with centuries to spare)}}, so there's really nothing else to do with the plans besides let them fall into the hands of a highly-organized, widespread group of religious terrorists bent on toppling the government for allying with the ''minions of the [[Anti Christ]]!''

** The "bio-weapon" of the Fourth Empire probably qualifies for when it was invented, as well. No amount of paranoia over the yet-unseen wave of genocidal invaders can make other than mindbogglingly ''insane'' the creation of {{spoiler|[[The Plague|a rapidly-evolving super plague]] that destroys ''all life'', has a very long dormancy period, and cannot be cured. That it turns out they could have effortlessly wiped out the invaders with their current military power just makes things worse}}.

* ''Possibly'' the Time Matrix from ''[[Animorphs]].'' In ''The Andalite Chronicles,'' it was implied to have been created by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|the Ellimist(s)]], the theory being that he/they used it to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]] in the first place. Years and dozens of books later ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' told the ''real'' story of how this happened, and the Time Matrix didn't even get a mention. So, who knows?

** There is a bit of [[Justified Trope|justification]] for it just being left behind, ~~though--neither~~ the Ellimist nor [[Eldritch Abomination|Crayak]] want the other's side to have it, so their "game" presumably has a rule about neither messing with it (until they had to in ''Elfangor's Secret''). Still leaves its origin (and [[Noodle Incident|how it got on Earth]] before the [[The Greys|Skrit Na]] found it) a mystery.

** There is a bit of [[Justified Trope|justification]] for it just being left behind, though—neither the Ellimist nor [[Eldritch Abomination|Crayak]] want the other's side to have it, so their "game" presumably has a rule about neither messing with it (until they had to in ''Elfangor's Secret''). Still leaves its origin (and [[Noodle Incident|how it got on Earth]] before the [[The Greys|Skrit Na]] found it) a mystery.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* One of these [[Lost Technology|left behind]] by the [[And Man Grew Proud|Blackmoor civilization]], then found and [[Idiot Ball|tinkered with]] by some ignorant elves, is the reason why one region of the [[Mystara]] game-setting is known as [[Mordor|the Broken Lands]].

* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has the Dracorage Mythal. Once upon a time, the Dragons ruled Toril, after mostly extrminating [[Recursive Precursors|the previous dominating species]]. Elves created a device that wraps the whole world in a magical field that [[Hate Plague|turns the dragons into stupid raging beasts]] every time a certain comet comes close. Upon the first activation Dragons began to tear apart their own servants and offspring, and soon there was nothing left of their civilization and elves ruled the world for next millenia... then they torn themselves apart without any external help and were mostly displaced by giants and dwarves, then by humans. And through all this time the forgotten spell field never failed to activate and inflict upon the world its brand of nightmare-from-the-sky every few dozen years as the "King-Killer Star" flies by. Oh, and later one insane lich managed to tinker with the Dracorage Mythal enough to get it activated indefinitely independently of the comet. Oops.

** Which also led to creation of ''another'' doomsday device, since the Dragons tried to solve the problem in any way possible, so they designed [[~~Wave_Motion_Gun~~|an enormous magical weapon]] to ''shoot the comet itself'', which in its test firing missed and hit the moon, which gave Toril a new inner sea and a cluster of asteroids next to the moon (in a Trojan orbit). Also, the inabitants of said moon for some inexplicable reason remain extremely paranoid about the inevitable conquest from Toril despite apparent lack of evidence to this end. The dragons involved were either lost in the next Rage or killed in unrelated incidents, so the device is forgotten.

** Which also led to creation of ''another'' doomsday device, since the Dragons tried to solve the problem in any way possible, so they designed [[Wave Motion Gun|an enormous magical weapon]] to ''shoot the comet itself'', which in its test firing missed and hit the moon, which gave Toril a new inner sea and a cluster of asteroids next to the moon (in a Trojan orbit). Also, the inabitants of said moon for some inexplicable reason remain extremely paranoid about the inevitable conquest from Toril despite apparent lack of evidence to this end. The dragons involved were either lost in the next Rage or killed in unrelated incidents, so the device is forgotten.

== [[Video Games]] ==